As I explain in my post at SEL, Yext has introduced a new fixed-fee ad product called Yext Tags. For $99 per month advertisers can include a promotional message on their organic listings across a vast network of local sites, which probably exceed 150 million monthly uniques in the aggregate.
It’s Google Tags but with a vast network that can update in real time. Yext Tags can be purchased from Yext directly (and is a second ad product after its PPCall offering) or will be available from reseller-partners. There are several benefits beyond the predictability and simplicity of the product:
- The massive and qualified reach of the network
- The ability (after Tags are live) to update or modify offers simultaneously across the network
- The offline tracking potential (via in-store redemptions)
In addition SMBs or others that use this product will have their listings checked and corrected as part of the deal. According to Yext CEO Howard Lerman:
The first thing that happens is that we automatically scan each of these sites for your listing and ask you (the merchant) to confirm it . . . If your business is not listed on the site, Yext Tags will automatically add you . . .
There’s perhaps a great deal more to discuss about this but I’ll end with a couple of points.
Yext Tags are in effect a new local ad network that join several others, including CityGrid, Chitika, Marchex, xAD, WHERE, Verve, etc. Almost without question it offers the greatest reach (at least “on paper”) of any of the local ad networks.
The simplicity of the product represents another “assault” on SEM for the local market. This is true in the sense that it’s an another alternative to buying paid search. There are lots of options out there, including deals, social media and now tags for SMBs who want scale and simplicity.
Yext Tags will cost $1,200 per year but that cost includes verification that the business listing is where it needs to be and is correct. I suspect the product will become very popular very quickly. How it will impact ad sales at any of the partner sites is unclear; I imagine it will be bundled in some places and sold separately in others. I’m not sure of this but I suspect that, beyond the partner sites, we’ll see an independent reseller option at some point.
In post SEL post I made an analogy to the Euro, Yext Tags are a kind of single “currency” that partly overcomes the fragmentation of the local market.
How meaningful do you think this is and how much of an impact do you think it will have on the local market — just another program or a “game changer”?
December 30th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Very interesting, smart move on paper.
I always viewed this as an SEM companion product – a way to differentiate your search results, but I’m intrigued with your scenario of it being an SEM alternative!
What is the sales model with the participants, do you know? How do they handle the obvious (significant) channel conflict over who”owns” the SMB’s participation into the network? I would speculate that many of the most valued channel partners have their own proprietary tag model that perhaps takes priority in display, making the network a backfill?
December 30th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Don’t know all the partner details; it’s 50% rev share to the partner I believe. All will be selling directly I also believe (at different price points). Not clear on proprietary vs. backfill either.
My characterization of this as an SEM alternative — it is also a companion — is that the complexity and problems of selling SEM to SMBs have caused a search for an alternative is several quarters.
A larger number of SMBs simply don’t want to deal with the complexity of paid search. If a 3rd party is handling and taking money off the top they’re often not sure they’re getting value.
December 31st, 2010 at 1:04 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Greg Sterling, UBLorg and others. UBLorg said: Great Local Post! Yext Creates the ‘Local Tag Network’ – As I explain in my post at SEL, Yext has introduced a new f… http://ow.ly/1aF5KR [...]
December 31st, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Greg: It became big news, its interesting and can be enticing. I wanted to look at the full scope of the network as it compares to Google with regard to one of our smb’s. Over a 6 month period its interesting:
Google.com delivered 10x the traffic to the website than the entire scope of that network as listed in the link above. OMG. 10x the traffic. Additionally G Maps delivered abt 15% traffic of the Yext network (that is direct from Maps usage–not from a 7pac/3pac G Map on Google.com) That is a partial analysis though: Using the yext tag could have other benefits not thoroughly seen just by the traffic comparison analysis:
A)We could have a message with exposure on many sites and limit dependence on the big Google monster. (I purposely didn’t say Wide exposure)
B) We could manage the message on many places from a single source.
C) Clearly there are views on those sites….and we might create a compelling message to make them more valuable to us.
Some other interesting info from that glance at 6 months of data. Google.M (mobile) delivered about 15x the traffic as did either Yahoo.M or Bing.M. whoa…that is a big difference.
Finally we noticed separately that Yelp reported to us that it received a separate volume of visits to our claimed smb on their site that amounted to about 1/3 the visits to our site as did the entire Yext group. Of the volume of traffic to Yelp only abt 7% of the visitors to the Yelp site went to the SMB site.
Meanwhile, during the time period in which I reviewed this info, there was significantly one major review on Yelp and it ripped us. (We are 99% sure it was planted by a competitor) We subsequently “managed” review placements on Yelp and a number of very happy customers gave us great reviews.
Last comment about Yelp was that for months we’ve gotten feedback from some small # of customers that they read reviews. Most interesting were the comments from people who purchased even though they noted the review that “ripped us”.
In sum, the biggest finding from this anecdotal, single smb review, is that the aggregate total of traffic delivered to the smb website was 10 times the aggregate volume of visits from the Yext network. Very overwhelming.
January 5th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Greg:
Received an update from a Yext type site for a different smb in a different market. Just checked yext member/traffic to the site versus google. Ugh…again a difference of about 10 to one.
If all this says one thing to me, it suggests that Google has a monopoly on local search. Facebook offers an “opportunity” to crack that, but just crack it. There is a HUGE difference between buying activity through a social network versus buying activity through search.
Best thing I can see about the Yext opportunity is that for $99/month you can get additional (maybe 10% coverage) with some kind of offer and not have to spend time managing it.
Things like this only highlight to me the monopolistic dominance Google has.
January 5th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
How representative do you believe your experience is?
January 5th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Greg: I don’t know. I tweeted about it. It would be interesting to hear from others. I have other smbs and only briefly looked at 2 from the basis of a comparison for impacts sake.
What do I get out of that?
1. Google has a scary level of market dominance..way into the monopoly range.
2. Priced at $99/month for a relatively small to medium sized business the yext tool is a reasonably nice way to create and spread a message into other sites beyond Google….but if the 10 to 1 holds true or close to true….don’t expect a lot of payback. Its well priced for local sites that can generate a lot of traffic its poorly priced for small businesses with little traffic.
3. I am sure there are a myriad of smb sites that have widely different patterns of sources of traffic. I’d look at my own traffic before jumping in….unless $99/month is an easy no brainer.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
Does anyone have any comparable experience with Yext and/or Google referrals in Local?
January 5th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
I just tweeted about it as @localoptimizer and referenced this piece. I love to see stats…and comparing how google delivers traffic versus members of the Yext network would be interesting.
April 25th, 2011 at 10:17 am
[...] has been retired, what’s happening to the product that was almost entirely modeled on it: Yext Tags? It’s still around. However it turns out that Yext had coincidentally renamed the product [...]
December 12th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
[...] UBL has been working on this kind of a “one-stop shop” data distribution program for several years but Yext seems to have leaped ahead of UBL and established that goal with its PowerListings product. The irony is that this product, which has changed Yext’s business model entirely, started as “Google Tags for the rest of the web.” [...]